Trump Administration, White House Going Up In Flames

By: Jim Owen | February 14, 2017

Though Michael Flynn has lost his job, questions remain about President Trump’s knowledge of the former national security adviser’s ties to Russia.

“What did the president know and when did he know it?” asked The Huffington Post, which compared the controversy with the Watergate scandal that resulted in the resignation of President Nixon nearly a half-century ago. Some members of the current presidential administration are worried that President Trump also could find himself facing impeachment proceedings, according to HuffPost.

The news site accused Trump and his aides of “a litany of patently obvious lies to the public and the press; mismanagement and vicious infighting; several malodorous cabinet choices; mixed messages from on high, many of them coming within minutes of each other; leaks that gush like a fire hydrant; national security lapses that would be comical if they were not so risky; and a job-approval rating lower at this point than that of any new president in memory.”

Flynn stepped down after admitting he met with a Russian ambassador in December, then lied about it to Vice President Mike Pence and others. Flynn and the ambassador reportedly came to an understanding that Trump would revoke Obama’s economic sanctions against Russia. Sally Yates, the recent acting attorney general, told the president several weeks ago that the FBI believed Putin had incriminating information about Flynn that he could use to blackmail the administration.

The Flynn affair could go down in history as Trump’s biggest scandal. It has sparked new interest in the administration’s connections with Russia, whose strongman leader, Vladimir Putin, has exchanged compliments with the new U.S. president. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, worked for an official in Ukraine who was closely allied with Putin.

HuffPost asked: “Is it possible Flynn would have had those conversations with the Russian ambassador and not told Trump about them? Was Trump really flying blind when he praised Putin for not reacting to those sanctions? Who else in the chain of command, as chaotic as it is, knew of Flynn’s conversations and his assurances to Russia? Now that Flynn is out of the White House, he no longer can claim executive privilege if subpoenaed to testify before Congress. Will he take the Fifth? Possibly. Will he talk? Unlikely.”